Shamans are better than druids.
Why?
I am a shaman.
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Inclinde to agree.
The thing is as roleplayers, even if we do know the lore, we should never bleed that into our chars without due cause. Its one thing for baine to speculate that azeroth might be the origin of the earthmother, mythos. Its quite another for tauren en masse to behave as if she is such given their culture is quite traditonlistic. Chieftain or not, baines musings wonât change the minds of generations of seers and they could easily just claim his head has been muddled by spending two much time around dwarves
Ironically, if we peer through their cultural interpretation. And primitive angle, the tauren have the best grasp on the wow cosmology. They place the earth mother (a powerful titan soul) at the centre of their universe, and claim that celestial bodies musha and elune were made from her eyes (elune is speculated to be a titan creation, but rather she may represent both light and shadow so the tauren personify this as two eyes of the same being which appear separate but both contribute to vision). Their myths also make note of how life rose from the areas of shadow cast from the earth mother and that for this reason shadow should never be entirely forsaken. As it goes their âbalance in bothâ along with where it comes from is pretty close to what is probably the OOC case.
I feel like thereâs not enough credit being given to the versatility of the shaman.
Strong agree.
Where did this Elune Titan construct thing emerge from?
And Telaryn shall answer
A lot of people have gone over the druidism side of things in this thread so I wonât touch on that anymore as I donât have much to add. Everything would be just me repeating what others have said. Iâll address some shaman points though.
Like this is inaccurate.
Through out the Thrall novels, the importance of the Spirit of Life is constantly mentioned, and shaman have pure Spirit based healing -- in fact, it's the type of healing that is constantly being favoured in novels over water.
The slice in his side demanded attention. Thrall placed ahand over the wound, asking for healing. His hand glowed softly, tingling with warmth, and the wound closed beneath it. He removed his robe, rinsed it clean of blood in the stream, bundled it up in his pack, and had just finished shrugging into a fresh robe when voices came to him.
Thrall took a deep breath, exhaled, and then stumbled to the side before sitting down heavily. The pain of the battle and the fall surged forward, and Thrall felt a small smile creep across his face as he realized, in this moment, that he hurt very badly indeed. He closed his eyes, asked for healing, and felt an answering warmth seep through his body. He was exhausted and still hurting, but he had tended to the worst, and he would survive.
But why use water at all then? The Shaman class quests from vanilla show more insight into that. I canât quote all the quests here because otherwise Iâll run out of space and have to make a second post, but the biggest takeaway from the questline is that water = life. All life revolves around water, no matter how scarce it is. You travel to different ecosystems across Azeroth to observe how life nourishes in the presence of water, and how its abundance forces wild life to act differently in order to preserve it.
To find understanding and gain the sapta from me, you must seek out only the purest forms of water. As you fetch the samples for me, take note of your surroundings. Be aware of the creatures that rely on the water, that protect it. See how it affects forests and deserts. Witness how the very substance that sustains life will force creatures to take lives.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Call_of_Water_(3)
Water is pivotal to life, and when a shaman heals using water theyâre releasing its rich life-giving energies to use as healing.
If one were to really overly simplify shaman into its very barebones definition, itâs someone who can form bonds with other spirits.
In Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects, the Earthen Ring uses spirit links between shaman to coordinate their efforts as one.
There were dozens of them, standing alone, or in pairs or small groups on the slippery skerries, trying to stay on their feet on the bucking, shuddering earth. Their arms were lifted in gestures of both command and pleading. Though not linked physically, they were joined on a spiritual level, eyes shut, deep in the working of a healing spell.
The shaman were attempting to soothe the elements of the earth, as well as encouraging them to help heal themselves. True, it was the elements who were harmed, and the shaman who were not, but the elements had more power than the shaman. If the earth could be calmed long enough to remember this, it would be able to draw upon its own vast power. But the earth, the stones and the soil and the very bones of Azeroth, also wrestled with another wound: betrayal.
And shaman show an ability to call upon the Spirit of Life to strengthen themselves much like a Monk does with their chi (which in of itself is just the Spirit of Life within themselves).
His body was healed but still deeply chilled, and he
knew his movements would be too slow to defend himself without aid.Spirit of Life, help me, that I may defeat this foe who should not live and that I may carry your visions to those who must know of them!
Warmth flooded through him, gentle yet powerful, granting vigor and suppleness to his limbs. Dimly, Thrall was aware that even his clothing had somehow dried. Energy, sharp and soothing both, strengthened him. He did not question, merely accepted gratefully.
A shaman is connected to all life around them through the Spirit of Life.
Thrall couldnât breathe.
He was overwhelmed by the power churning within and without him. Forcing his eyes to open, he saw pale white shapes swirling about him. One was a wolf, the other a goat, another an orc, and a human, and a deer. He realized that every living thing had spirits, and felt despair rise up in him at the thought of having to sense and control all of them.
But faster than he could have dreamed, the spirits filled and then vacated him. Thrall felt pummeled by the onslaught, but forced himself to try to focus, to address each one with respect. It became impossible and he sank to his knees.
A soft sound filled the air, and Thrall struggled to lift a head that felt as heavy as stone. They floated calmly around him now, and he knew that he had been judged and found worthy. A ghostly stag pranced about him, and he knew that he would never simply be able to bite into a haunch of venison without feeling its Spirit, and thanking it for the nourishment it provided. He felt a kinship with every orc that had ever been born, and even the human Spirit felt more like Tarethaâs sweet presence than Blackmooreâs dark cruelty.
Everything was bright, even if sometimes it embraced the dark; all life was connected, and any shaman who tampered with the chain without the utmost care and respect for that Spirit was doomed to fail.
Big agree.
The druid vs shaman thing isnât really meant to be a competition because while theyâre both two sides of the same coin and they often overlap, their duties as per their class ideologies focus on different things. But life is complex and never so simply that it can be divided into binaries.
The shaman are in their own way incredibly connected to the world around them. In some ways even more so than a druid, because shaman are always one with the world after they bind their spirit to it. According to the shaman class quests from Vanilla, they literally become one with it, and not just on a spiritual level.
A sapta is a drink created to bind our spirits to the elements. Fused with magic, the potion will allow the strong willed to see the elements as no one else can. Your spirit will be connected to the element the sapta was created for, and only a select few shaman know the recipe.
Bound together in body and spirit, you will go forward knowing that the mountains are your strength; the plains, your patience; and the world itself your essence.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Call_of_Earth_(Durotar_2)
Sources:
- Lord of the Clans
- Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
- Call of the Water
- Call of the Earth
Also how cool is that formatting? 
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Heh, learn something new every day!
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Thatâs always the important thing 
Well done TelFyne.
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I add the powerful shaman lore to my knowledge, becoming complete
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I suppose the difference between druids and shaman lies in how they care about spirit energy? Druids seem to care more about the health and well-being of life, the state of the spirit energy that dwells inside of all living things, while shaman seem to care much more about the spirit energy that ties the elements together and connects all thing, including life.
But thereâs still overlap. Druids still care about the harmony of the land (but not as much as a shaman) and shaman still care about the prosperity of life (but not as much as a druid). The fact that they use the same spirit energy can cause their abilities to overlap too.
Something is canon until itâs not, regardless of the date of the source. Tauren use the Light, they just think otherwise.
The interesting implication of this is how this affects solar magic for druids. Sunwalkers draw on âthe sunâ for their power, and use The Light. Does a druid do the same? Is Solar Wrath just a Light spell? If it isnât, then why can druids draw on the sunâs power but tauren paladins canât?
Edit: Grammar
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She also created moonkin, and took up Yseraâs soul. How does this factor in?
Itâs possible to draw on the Light via powerful entities. The Blood Knights all used a naaru, a sentient being of great power. I see no reason why Elune cannot function similarly, giving her power to others on a consensual basis.
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They name drop in Before the Storm that it doesnât matter what [deity] you believe in as the Light can be invoked through whatever story/figure that resonates in you the most.
The Light finds us, he thought. All of us. It chooses the story, or the face, or the name, or the song that resonates the most with each of us. We may call it Elune, or Anâshe, or just the Light, but it doesnât matter. We can turn away from it if we desire, but itâs always there.
Thatâs cool, but it doesnât really answer the question regarding Elune specifically & itâs just what golden boy thinks. I mentioned a quote above where the quest giver says Elune is taxed after the NW ritual (itâs the leatherworking quest in BfA btw). Why would she sense that if Elune is literally just an image in their head they use to tap into the wider Light source? By that logic, it shouldnât matter if Elune feels taxed, you should still be able to tap into the Light without a problem, and you shouldnât feel like the entity is taxed UNLESS you tap into the Light -through- that entity. As in the entity taps into the Light, and then grants you that magic.
Like the Naaru granted the draenei power, being creatures of the Light and all (as seen on the chronicles map).
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Again, Blood Knights and Naaru. They couldnât access the Light on their own and siphoned, drained, that power from a Naaru. Elune is, most certainly, some kind of powerful being with some relation to the Light - even Khadgar thinks Elune and the Naaru are connected - so itâs not beyond the pale to assume Elune can give her followers power. The power she gives them, is the Light.
I wouldnât dismiss Anduinâs theories, either, given he trained directly under Velen. That boy ought to be able to see what is and isnât Light.
Exactly my thoughts, hence I disliked the simplified idea of âhehe they all just accidentally tap directly into the Light no matter in what nonsense they believeâ.
To me itâs quite clear that these entities are very real, granting their followers the power of the Light and serving as a conduit of sorts.
Edit: Yes, he trained under the same person that claimed Elune is a Naaru. I wouldnât know why Velen or Anduin would have more knowledge about Elune, the entity the night elves have revered and studied for millenia. But then, I wouldnât be surprised if High King Anduin Wrynn has it all figured out.
Yeah but Velen also thought Elune was a naaru, so him+Anduin seeing everything through their specific (biased+incorrect) lens also isnât surprising.
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Honestly, I think this is genuinely a cool piece of lore. What I donât like so much is that itâs widely known by its practitioners at this point - Iâd like it if they didnât have an objective understanding of it, and instead clung to their traditional, cultural interpretations.
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